SAINT-LAMBERT, QUEBEC — Tom Crean, along with Yogi Ferrell (seven points), Troy Williams (27 points, four rebounds, three blocks) and James Blackmon Jr. (20 points, five rebounds) met with the media following Indiana’s 109-101 loss to the University of Ottawa on Sunday afternoon.

Watch and listen to postgame comments from IU’s coach and players in the media players below:

Kevin Yogi Ferrell

On the difference in the game down the stretch:
“Three-point defense and man-to-man defense. Down the stretch we didn’t bear down. They made some three’s in transition and that’s what gave them the momentum in the fourth quarter.”

On where the defensive breakdowns came from:
“Those breakdowns defensively came from over-helps, not switching up on all ball screens and one-on-one defense, and that’s basically it.”

On how the team prepares to bounce back and focus on the game tomorrow:
“Just watching film, seeing what we need to do differently. Just have to reiterate to these guys, just team defense and getting to the right spots on defense.”

Troy Williams

On what the team did right today:
“We got out and pushed the ball really well. We picked it up more in the second half, but we still have a lot more to work on.”

On how important it is to have multiple players contribute offensively:
“It helps us out in different ways, it can be anybody on any given night. Friday night, it was James (Blackmon Jr.) and Rob (Johnson) who picked it up. This night it was myself and Yogi (Ferrell), Devin (Davis) and Stan (Robinson) who picked it up. Any given night it can be anybody’s night.”

On if he likes the up and down pace:
“I’ve always been a 100 miles per hour guy and this is like nothing to me. This shot clock is a little less, but it gets the game moving and I like that, I like to run the floor.”

On what he saw defensively:
“We over-helped a lot. We have to work on our one-on-one defense so we don’t feel like we have to over-help.”

On his impression of Nick Zeisloft so far:
“He helps out a lot. He’s a shooter, he came from Illinois State shooting 42 percent from the three and 90 percent from the free throw line. So that helps space out the court so that means more drives and more kick-outs so he brings a great impact to the game.”

On how he and the team get ready for Monday’s game:
“We just come back tonight, eat and if we want we can have a film session. The biggest thing right now is forget about this game, move on from it and get ready for tomorrow’s game.”

James Blackmon Jr.

On how comfortable he felt during the game on offense:
“Something I knew was going to come was my offense, so the main thing I wanted to focus on was defensively. One of the best things I do is score so I knew that would come along.”

On how difficult it was to cover Ottawa on defense:
“It was definitely hard to cover, but I feel we could have accomplished covering them. I think that our on ball defense wasn’t as good as it needed to be, which caused over-helping. Myself, I felt I was helping too much because I thought the other man was getting beat and I was helping in the lane, and they would get an open three.”

On how much Coach Crean asks James and Robert Johnson to initiate offense:
“Definitely. I thought that was one of the reasons I thought I should come here. He’s going to push me even to play the point guard, I can show that here. I’ve just been getting a lot better in pushing my dribble out.”

On how the 24-second clock helps teach the team to push the pace:
“We’re definitely getting a good lesson, I think that the 24-second clock helps our team. We’re a fast-paced team and myself, I’m accustomed to playing fast.”

On how he and the other players listen to the veteran players and turn around for the game Monday:
“We all feel like we could have had it in the fourth quarter when it was 88-88. We felt like we had the game. That’s probably what we’re going to talk about, just never letting that slip again and I don’t think that will happen again.”

I like the players attitudes.
As well as Yogis body language, you can tell he really wants to win.
The people in the know said we weren’t going to win all these games, and those Canadians are very good.
It was a good test, experience in the bank, all to the good.

FinEndNow

Good to see that Troy was able to be consistent in back to back games.

shknqk

Troy hasn’t seem like the most cerebral player but you can see maturity in his play and postgame presence.

I think what we will see from this team is a fairly high degree of variability in the early days like most young teams but I really think they will actually move around the learning curve and finish strong.

I love that they ran in to this three point buzz saw this early… No way this lesson is lost on these guys and I remember even the last Zeller-Vic team occasionally over helped and it caused problems.

Hoosier Hall

100% agree with the perimeter defense comment although we probably won’t see too many teams that shoot that well. Heck, there may only be a handful of teams in division 1 that shoot it like that. Creighton was one of them last season.